Objects

F/A-18F Super Hornet

The F/A-18F Super Hornet is a two-seat, carrier-based combat aircraft built by Boeing and flown by the United States Navy, which has featured in several first-hand and archival accounts of encounters with unidentified anomalous phenomena, including the 2004 USS Nimitz incident and Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program footage.

Boeing · United States Navy (USN) · Electronic attack / fighter-bomber · Aircraft · Two-seat (pilot and weapon systems operator)

The F/A-18F Super Hornet is a two-seat, carrier-based aircraft operated by the United States Navy (USN), used more for electronic attack and full-up fighter-bomber roles.¹ Its back-seat weapon systems operator (WSO) is not a pilot and holds a role distinct from the pilot’s,² handling most of the aircraft’s radio communications.³ The legacy F/A-18 Hornet carries less fuel than the Super Hornet,⁴ and the type’s introduction, with its back-seat WSO, created some friction at USA, California, Lemoore.⁵

David Fravor shifted to flying F/A-18F Super Hornets after 2001⁶ and commanded Strike Fighter Squadron 41 (VFA-41) while flying the aircraft’s two-seat variant.⁷ After completing his first Super Hornet cruise he visited the Boeing factory in USA, Missouri, St. Louis, where his squadron’s new aircraft were being built,⁸ and signed the inside of one aircraft’s wing while it was being assembled.⁹

The Super Hornet’s cockpit includes a situational awareness display linked to all other aircraft in the network,¹⁰ fed by a networked digital link that fuses sensor data across multiple aircraft to show friendly and enemy positions in real time.¹¹ On the block two variant, the WSO’s display measures approximately 20 by 25 centimetres, while the pilot’s is smaller, at approximately 15 by 15 centimetres;¹² Boeing was separately planning to redesign the pilot’s display.¹³ A joint helmet-mounted cueing system maps the cockpit’s magnetic field to track where the pilot is looking,¹⁴ and turning the pilot’s head slews the radar and targeting pod to look in the same direction;¹⁵ the back-seat WSO’s helmet can independently slew whichever sensor he is controlling.¹⁶ The aircraft’s phased-array radar does not need to mechanically scan.¹⁷ The aircraft used to film the Gimbal video were F/A-18F Super Hornets equipped with the AN/APG-79 Radar, a phased-array radar built by Raytheon.¹⁸ Fravor said that using the helmet-cueing system together with the Joint Direct Attack Munition (JDAM), he could slew sensors and transfer targeting coordinates to weapons within seconds, a process that used to take minutes.¹⁹

The F/A-18F Super Hornet is rated for 7.5 G but does not overstress until 8.1 G, depending on fuel weight,²⁰ and Fravor routinely experienced accelerations of around 8 G in the aircraft.²¹ It can perform a split-S vertical displacement manoeuvre - rolling inverted and descending in a C-shape - in approximately 760 metres.²² At high supersonic speed its flight controls deform and the speed brakes cease to function.²³ Flying an unarmed Super Hornet with no external pylons or pods,²⁴ Fravor reached Mach 1.78, at which speed the ejection seat had no safety margin and ejecting would itself have been fatal, so he realised he would not be able to eject if something went wrong.²⁵

The type’s most publicised association is with the 2004 USS Nimitz UAP encounter. During that incident, Fravor and three other crew flew two F/A-18F Super Hornets, two crew to a jet, after their training mission was cancelled.²⁶ In August 2017, the Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program (AATIP) released a video of a whitish oval object, about the size of a commercial plane, chased by two Navy F/A-18F Super Hornets from the aircraft carrier USS Nimitz (CVN-68) off the coast of USA, California, San Diego in 2004.²⁷ AATIP separately collected video and audio recordings of reported Unidentified Flying Object (UFO) incidents, including footage from a Navy Super Hornet showing an aircraft surrounded by a glowing aura, travelling at high speed and rotating as it moved.²⁸ Officials at the United States Department of Defense (DoD) declined to release the location and date of that incident.²⁹

In 2014, Ryan Graves was an F/A-18F Super Hornet pilot in Navy Fighter Attack Squadron 11 (Strike Fighter Squadron 11 (VFA-11)), stationed at USA, Virginia, NAS Oceana in USA, Virginia, Virginia Beach.³⁰ During a training mission in Warning Area W-72, approximately 16 kilometres off the coast of Virginia Beach, two F/A-18F Super Hornets were split apart by an Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena (UAP);³¹ the mission commander terminated the training flight immediately and returned to base.³²

References (32)

F/A-18F Super Hornet used mainly for electronic attack and fighter-bomber roles
“the F-18F Super Hornet, which is the F is a two seater and the G is also a two seater, but it's more of an electronic attack by say, full up fighter, bomber”
David Fravor: UFOs, Aliens, Fighter Jets, and Aerospace Engineering | Lex Fridman Podcast #122 00:21:35.0-00:21:43.3
Weapon systems operators are not pilots, a distinct role
“that are not pilots, they're weapon systems operators, and there's a difference.”
David Fravor: UFOs, Aliens, Fighter Jets, and Aerospace Engineering | Lex Fridman Podcast #122 00:23:21.1-00:23:23.8
WSO handles most radio communications
“most of the communications that go out of the airplane, the Wizzo does all the talking, he's got actually, he uses his feet.”
David Fravor: UFOs, Aliens, Fighter Jets, and Aerospace Engineering | Lex Fridman Podcast #122 00:33:13.3-00:33:18.1
Legacy F/A-18 Hornet carries less fuel than the Super Hornet
“the little hornets the legacy hornets f-18s don't have as much gas as the super hornets”
David Fravor: UFOs, Aliens, Fighter Jets, and Aerospace Engineering | Lex Fridman Podcast #122 01:27:25.5-01:27:29.9
Introduction of the WSO back seat created friction at Lemoore
“he really wanted, because he knew there was a little bit of a problem when the Super Hornets came into Lemoore... And now all of a sudden, you've got the F-18F coming in, which has the weapon systems operators in the back.”
David Fravor: UFOs, Aliens, Fighter Jets, and Aerospace Engineering | Lex Fridman Podcast #122 00:23:02.4-00:23:20.1
Fravor shifted to flying Super Hornets after 2001
“And then I shifted over and started flying the Super Hornets”
David Fravor: UFOs, Aliens, Fighter Jets, and Aerospace Engineering | Lex Fridman Podcast #122 00:22:07.7-00:22:09.7
Fravor flew the two-seat variant while commanding VFA-41
“But I deployed, when I had command of VFA-41, I had the two-seat.”
David Fravor: UFOs, Aliens, Fighter Jets, and Aerospace Engineering | Lex Fridman Podcast #122 00:22:12.0-00:22:16.1
Fravor visited the Boeing factory in St. Louis after his first Super Hornet cruise
“We had went to the Boeing factory in St. Louis, where they were building my new jets that I was going to get.”
David Fravor: UFOs, Aliens, Fighter Jets, and Aerospace Engineering | Lex Fridman Podcast #122 00:54:52.2-00:54:56.2
Fravor signed the inside of an aircraft's wing during assembly
“And I actually signed the inside of one of the wings while they were putting it together.”
David Fravor: UFOs, Aliens, Fighter Jets, and Aerospace Engineering | Lex Fridman Podcast #122 00:54:56.3-00:54:59.6
Situational awareness display linked to all other aircraft in the network
“we have a situational awareness display and it's linked to all the other airplanes.”
David Fravor: UFOs, Aliens, Fighter Jets, and Aerospace Engineering | Lex Fridman Podcast #122 00:33:25.8-00:33:29.4
Networked digital link fuses sensor data across aircraft in real time
“It's sending it out through the link, so all the airplanes are talking to each other through this digital network... that airplane says hey i'm over here and it tells us and we go oh he's right there”
David Fravor: UFOs, Aliens, Fighter Jets, and Aerospace Engineering | Lex Fridman Podcast #122 00:34:32.8-00:34:42.4
Block two WSO display ~20x25cm, pilot display ~15x15cm
“the back of the Super Hornet has, well, the block twos has about an eight by 10 display for the wizos... the pilots is smaller. It's down between us. It's a six by six”
David Fravor: UFOs, Aliens, Fighter Jets, and Aerospace Engineering | Lex Fridman Podcast #122 00:33:36.9-00:33:45.5
Boeing was planning to redesign the pilot's display
“they're, they're getting ready to redesign that Boeing is.”
David Fravor: UFOs, Aliens, Fighter Jets, and Aerospace Engineering | Lex Fridman Podcast #122 00:33:46.6-00:33:49.3
Helmet-mounted cueing system maps the cockpit's magnetic field
“you've got a joint helmet mounted queuing system on that basically maps the magnetic field in the cockpit so it can tell where your head's at looking.”
David Fravor: UFOs, Aliens, Fighter Jets, and Aerospace Engineering | Lex Fridman Podcast #122 00:36:00.0-00:36:05.9
Turning the pilot's head slews the radar and targeting pod
“So if I turn my head to the right, the radar will actually look to the right, the targeting flare will look to the right.”
David Fravor: UFOs, Aliens, Fighter Jets, and Aerospace Engineering | Lex Fridman Podcast #122 00:36:06.9-00:36:11.0
WSO's helmet can independently slew whichever sensor he controls
“the back seater has a helmet on too, so he can look to the left and he can do things. So depending on what sensor he's controlling. So if he's got control of the targeting pod and he looks left, the targeting pod looks left.”
David Fravor: UFOs, Aliens, Fighter Jets, and Aerospace Engineering | Lex Fridman Podcast #122 00:36:13.0-00:36:23.7
Phased-array radar does not need to mechanically scan
“because it's a phased array radar now, it doesn't really scan.”
David Fravor: UFOs, Aliens, Fighter Jets, and Aerospace Engineering | Lex Fridman Podcast #122 00:36:30.6-00:36:33.4
Gimbal video aircraft equipped with AN/APG-79 radar made by Raytheon
“the airplanes they're flying, still Super Hornets, but they have the APG-79, which is the new phased array radar that's made by Raytheon”
David Fravor: UFOs, Aliens, Fighter Jets, and Aerospace Engineering | Lex Fridman Podcast #122 02:44:59.2-02:45:05.2
Fravor: helmet cueing plus JDAM cut targeting time from minutes to seconds
“i can literally slew my sensors this fast, and then mash a button and transfer high-quality coordinates from a system into a joint JDAM... and then let that thing fly. And I'm solving this problem in seconds, vise minutes.”
David Fravor: UFOs, Aliens, Fighter Jets, and Aerospace Engineering | Lex Fridman Podcast #122 00:36:53.9-00:37:10.1
Rated for 7.5 G, does not overstress until 8.1 G depending on fuel weight
“the jet's rated at seven and a half, but it'll pull up to 8.1 before it overstresses, depends on fuel weight.”
David Fravor: UFOs, Aliens, Fighter Jets, and Aerospace Engineering | Lex Fridman Podcast #122 00:54:14.2-00:54:18.8
Fravor routinely experienced around 8 G in the aircraft
“So, I mean, you routinely get up there towards eight G's.”
David Fravor: UFOs, Aliens, Fighter Jets, and Aerospace Engineering | Lex Fridman Podcast #122 00:54:19.8-00:54:21.8
Split-S manoeuvre completed in approximately 760 metres
“a Super Hornet to do what a split S is... it does it in about roughly about 2,500 feet, give or take a little.”
David Fravor: UFOs, Aliens, Fighter Jets, and Aerospace Engineering | Lex Fridman Podcast #122 00:05:35.0-00:06:15.0
Speed brakes stop functioning at high supersonic speed as flight controls deform
“the super horn, it really doesn't have speed brakes. It, it deforms the flight controls. they don't function”
David Fravor: UFOs, Aliens, Fighter Jets, and Aerospace Engineering | Lex Fridman Podcast #122 01:08:58.9-01:09:04.1
Fravor's Mach 1.78 flight was unarmed with no external pylons or pods
“the airplane didn't have anything on it. It was a slicked-off Super Hornet, so it was basically just the airplane. No pylons, no pods, no nothing.”
David Fravor: UFOs, Aliens, Fighter Jets, and Aerospace Engineering | Lex Fridman Podcast #122 01:08:41.3-01:08:46.3
At Mach 1.78 ejection would have been fatal; no safety margin
“there's no out if something happens i can't eject the ejection would kill me”
David Fravor: UFOs, Aliens, Fighter Jets, and Aerospace Engineering | Lex Fridman Podcast #122 01:08:07.3-01:08:11.5
Fravor and three crew flew two Super Hornets after training mission cancelled, 2004
“So originally it was the four of us. There's two jets, two people in each jet. They're F-18Fs.”
David Fravor: UFOs, Aliens, Fighter Jets, and Aerospace Engineering | Lex Fridman Podcast #122 01:15:07.6-01:15:11.9
AATIP released video of whitish oval object chased by two Super Hornets from USS Nimitz off San Diego, 2004
“including one released in August of a whitish oval object, about the size of a commercial plane, chased by two Navy F/A-18F fighter jets from the aircraft carrier Nimitz off the coast of San Diego in 2004.”
Glowing Auras and 'Black Money': The Pentagon's Mysterious U.F.O. Program (Published 2017) char:2946-3146 View the source record →
AATIP collected footage of Super Hornet encounter with glowing-aura object
“The program collected video and audio recordings of reported U.F.O. incidents, including footage from a Navy F/A-18 Super Hornet showing an aircraft surrounded by some kind of glowing aura traveling at high speed and rotating as it moves.”
Glowing Auras and 'Black Money': The Pentagon's Mysterious U.F.O. Program (Published 2017) char:10275-10507 View the source record →
Defense officials declined to release location and date of the glowing-aura incident
“Defense officials declined to release the location and date of the incident.”
Glowing Auras and 'Black Money': The Pentagon's Mysterious U.F.O. Program (Published 2017) char:10633-10700 View the source record →
Graves was a Super Hornet pilot in VFA-11 at NAS Oceana, Virginia Beach, 2014
“In 2014, I was an F–18 Foxtrot pilot in the Navy Fighter Attack Squadron 11, the Red Rippers, and I was stationed at NAS Oceana in Virginia Beach.”
Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena: Implications on National Security, Public Safety, and Government Transparency char:33046-33186 View the source record →
Two Super Hornets split apart by a UAP in Warning Area W-72
“During a training mission in Warning Area W–72, 10 miles off the coast of Virginia Beach, two F–18 Super Hornets were split by a UAP.”
Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena: Implications on National Security, Public Safety, and Government Transparency char:33491-33620 View the source record →
Mission commander terminated the flight and returned to base
“The mission commander terminated the flight immediately and returned to base.”
Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena: Implications on National Security, Public Safety, and Government Transparency char:33799-33871 View the source record →

F/A-18F Super Hornet

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